“The Good Wife” recap (5.15): Terror in the Courtroom

The young man is Jeffrey Grant, played by Hunter Parrish. Remember him? Way back in November, we witnessed him being pulled over by the cops for a DUI, and eventually getting charged with the murder of a fellow female college student, Dani Littlejohn. Upon initial interviews, Kalinda had deemed him guilty, but Will steadfastly stood by innocence, believing Jeffrey’s own claims. The case had been left unresolved at the end of that episode. DNA under Dani’s nails ended up matching Jeffrey’s exactly, landing him in the slammer to await trial.

The trial has arrived this week, and Will is charging forward with typical Will swagger, provoking the judge and opposing counsel. His strategy for the case is focusing on “touch DNA,” the idea that Dani and Jeffrey could have touched similar objects on campus that day and swapped DNA that way.

Jeffrey, however, is not so full of swagger. He looks around the courtroom with glassy eyes, sporting a shiner on his left eye from apparent tough times in jail. Tense orchestral music plays in his head, rendering everything around him muted and slightly out of focus, until Will slaps him on the shoulder.

“I think I’m guilty,” he says.

This seems like a funny thing to say. You would believe that a person either knows they’re guilty or not. Unless they have developed some distorted view of the past and maybe the present, where they can’t discern what’s real and not real. Jeffrey says it soberly, staring straight ahead. I think I’m guilty. But Will doesn’t even seem to fully hear him. Because Will is on a mission. He is staying the course, the course of Jeff being an upstanding young man railroaded by the police. He assures his client that everything is going to be fine.

We begin with Alicia smiling.

She’s leaning against a wall in the Florrick Agos headquarters, looking at the hustle and bustle she and Cary have created, with a rare smile of satisfaction and some type of peace on her face. She thanks Cary for talking her into all of this. She is happy.

Since they’re sharing A Moment, Cary decides to come clean to Alicia with this piece of information: “I’m seeing Kalinda.” Oh! OK, then. That is happening. It’s good to have this cleared up, since we haven’t seen any other scenes of them being together other than that sex stuff two episodes ago, but Kalinda has had a lot of random sex stuff this season, so, who knew? He just wanted to let Alicia know so that it wasn’t a surprise, and to assure her that he wasn’t divulging any information about their firm.

Alicia has an indiscernible look on her face, her mouth slightly ajar, her eyes doing their thinking-something-over darts back and forth. Cary gives her a confused look, says she seems concerned. “No, it’s just—” Alicia starts. “When you say you’re seeing her…” Cary raises his eyebrows. “I just thought she was gay.” And inside all of our Kalicia heads, we believe this, of course, to actually mean: I just thought she was in love with ME.

Cary clarifies for her that no, Kalinda is “bi…or something.” Alicia quickly nods and moves on. In a way, Alicia’s confusion about Kalinda’s sexuality seems confusing, as there was one point in time where Alicia actually knew Kalinda quite well. At the very least, she knew that Kalinda was previously married to a man. Maybe she believed that Kalinda was one of those who “turn gay” after leaving a man? Because, you know, you have to be one thing or the other?

But in any case, anytime the word “bi” is said out loud on television, an angel gets its wings. And the “or something” is just so great, signifying that Cary doesn’t really know either, because obvs Kalinda hasn’t discussed it with him, but more importantly, he doesn’t really care. Hear, hear to Kalinda continuing to be the fiercest label-free woman on TV.

This discussion of Kalinda’s sexuality is sadly broken up by the reemergence of Public Integrity guy, Nelson Dubeck, who, to be honest, I’m surprised hasn’t shown up already. This episode had been advertised as a game changer, and all the evidence that’s been building over the last few episodes has been obviously pointing to this game changer being about Governor Big going down, the election fraud, the video clip implicating Will and Alicia and probably a boatload of other people. And I wasn’t exactly looking forward to it, because to be frank, I hate when the drama revolves around Peter. He doesn’t deserve it.

It turns out that I’m wrong, though. Soon, we’ll find out that this isn’t really what this episode is about at all.

Dubeck encourages Alicia to give a voluntary deposition about the ballot box to help clear herself, especially since there’s another lawyer who’s willing to speak first, one by the name of Will Gardner. Alicia’s stone set face gives way slightly. She says that she highly doubts it. As you should, Alicia. As you should. She returns to giving Dubeck her finest “See you in hell, creton,” glare, and then hires Cary as her lawyer.